Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

I am a multidisciplinary Engineer with professional experiences developing scientific software and custom robotic/electronic solutions. My academic research interests are primarily focused on UAS-based atmospheric measurements, particularly in support of aviation weather. Such efforts resulted in a U.S. patent, a textbook chapter, and multiple peer-reviewed journal papers.

Research Interests:

Unmanned systems, instrumentation, calibration and validation, experiment design, atmospheric measurements, phased array radars, embedded systems, systems integration, and problem-basedlearning.

Dr. Bach is an Professor at OSU MAE, conducting industry relevant research in HVAC&R systems and components. His focus is heat pumps and their components and controls. Current projects include heat exchanger testing and simulation, compressor testing and simulation, as well as transitioning an updated defrostign controls algorithm to the industry sponsor.

He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2014 and his Dipl.-Ing.(FH) from the University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Experience outside OSU includes working for Cool Expert GmbH and MIPack GmbH & Co.KG as well as internships at Siemens ICN in Germany and Minus 40 Pty. Ltd. in Australia.

He served as committee member or mentor for over 20 graduate students and mentored over 20 undergraduate class projects. He is an active member of ASHRAE and co-adviser for the OSU student branche of ASHRAE.

I am an Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University, based at the OSU-Tulsa campus. My research lies at the intersection of control theory, optimization, and machine learning, where I develop methods for trustworthy autonomy in safety-critical aerospace and robotic systems.

My work brings together two complementary strengths. Control theory and optimization provide mathematical structure, reliability, and formal guarantees. Artificial intelligence and machine learning give autonomous systems the ability to learn from data and adapt to uncertain or changing environments. My goal is to combine these capabilities without sacrificing the safety and predictability required when intelligent systems leave simulation and operate in the real world.

My research includes computationally efficient methods for real-time trajectory planning and control as well as learning-enabled approaches for aerospace autonomy. Applications span spacecraft guidance and control, UAV navigation, advanced air mobility, robotic systems, and space domain awareness.

At OSU, I am building a research program focused on safe-by-design learning-enabled guidance, navigation, and control, and I am especially interested in connecting fundamental mathematical research with experimental validation and real-world flight testing.

Research is only one part of what draws me to academia. I am equally committed to teaching and mentorship, and I aim to create a collaborative environment where students are encouraged to ask difficult questions, develop independent ideas, and grow into confident, creative, and ethical researchers and engineers.

Anthony Comer is an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University and Director of the Simulation to Flight Applied Research Laboratory (S2FAR), specializing in the development, optimization, and flight testing of configuration-independent flight control system architectures with a focus on vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles. He is a co-applicant on two provisional patents related to the Simplified Vehicle Operations flight control architecture developed during his doctoral studies. He has previously worked with the NASA Ames Aeromechanics Branch to develop a sizing framework for a Martian vehicle with stability and control integration. He also worked at the NASA Langley Research Center, where he helped advance their flight simulation and subscale flight testing capabilities. He received his Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University. His research interests include control system development, flight simulation, simulation model development, hardware integration, control system optimization, subscale flight testing, and VTOL handling qualities.

Dr. Paul Elliott is a Research Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Department at Oklahoma State University. He has also been an Assistant Professor at the State University of New York where he was selected as the Instructor of the Year in 2020, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of North Florida. He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UConn where he received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission Fellowship, a MS from University of Dayton in renewable and clean energy engineering, and a BS in mechanical engineering from Harding University. His work with NASA includes the design and construction of a rover experiment platform for the detection of methane over large distances on the Martian surface, and the construction of an experimental package that flew on a sounding rocket to an altitude of 41 miles. His areas of research include low stress ceramic to metal bonding, metal 3D printing and low temperature casting, non-toxic amalgams and metal matrix composites, and vehicle and motor design for high powered rocketry.

Dr. Guldiken is the John Brammer Endowed Professor and Head of the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University.  He previously served as a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department and as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering at the University of South Florida (USF).  He received his Ph.D. from the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  He began his independent academic career at USF, where he established the Acoustic and Microfluidics Laboratory.  Since then, he has sought to discover new knowledge within his research interests in Acoustics, Microfluidics, and Engineering Education, with the overarching goal of solving global challenges. His research in engineering education focuses on flipped classrooms, adaptive and active learning, metacognition, and reflection, making significant contributions to learning science and broader STEM education. His online educational resources on fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and engineering mathematics have been viewed 1.5M times and watched for 70,000 hours worldwide (there are 8,760 hours in a year).

Dr. Guldiken has graduated 16 Ph.D. and 13 M.S. students from his research group as the major or co-major professor and has worked with 21 undergraduate students.  The alumni have secured their dream jobs across the country, including positions such as Project Manager at Neuralink in Austin, TX, Mechanical Engineer at Blue Origin, and tenured Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, among others. Dr. Guldiken holds 10 U.S. patents as an inventor and has published over 50 invited book chapters and journal articles in leading journals in his field.  Dr. Guldiken is currently the Program Chair-Elect of ASEE Mechanical Engineering Division and has served as Chair of the ASME Microelectromechanical Systems Division and Chair of the ASME Micro Nano Fluid Dynamics Technical Committee within the Fluid Engineering Division. Dr. Guldiken has received multiple awards and honors, including the 2024 NAI Senior Member, 2022 ASME Fellow, 2022 USF Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award, 2022 USF Academic Excellence Award, the 2019 and 2012 USF University- Wide Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Awards, the 2018 USF Outstanding Graduate Faculty Mentor Honorable Mention, and the 2014 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Ralph Teetor Educational Award.

• Jamey Jacob is the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education, Williams Chair in Energy Technology at OSU Tulsa, and Regents Professor of Aerospace Engineering in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University. He has approximately $50M in funded research projects as PI and Co-PI from government and industry including AFOSR, AFRL, DOD, DOE, DARPA, FAA, NASA, NSF, SOCOM, USN, Boeing, General Electric, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, and Toyota, among others. He is currently PI on the EDA funded LaunchPad and UAS Flight Corridor programs, OSU lead for the Tulsa Hub for Ethical and Trustworthy Autonomy Tech Hub, the NASA University Leadership Initiative program WINDMAP to develop aviation weather solutions for advanced aerial mobility applications, including drones and urban air taxis, and a NIST effort on the Development of Test Certification Standards for AAM Platforms. He also leads the DoD sponsored Counter-UAS Center of Excellence. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1990 and his M.S and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1992 and 1995, respectively. He was a National Research Council Summer Faculty Fellow in the Air Force Research Laboratory and Fulbright Specialist. He received the SAE Ralph Teetor Award, the Lockheed Martin Teaching Award, and the OSU Regents Distinguished Teaching Award, among other teaching and mentoring awards. He is a native Oklahoman and dedicates much of his efforts to education and STEM workforce development. He is a Part 107 UAS pilot with approximately 500 hours operating various platforms.
  
  Research Interests:
  
  Emerging aerospace technology, robotic exploration, uncrewed aircraft, weather, aerodynamics and flow control, ad infinitum.

Muwanika Jdiobe is an Aeroacoustics Engineer at Boeing and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, where his research focused on the aeroacoustic characterization of coaxial ducted propellers for small Unmanned Aerial Vechicles (UAVs). His academic and professional interests include aeroacoustics, UAV design, computational fluid dynamics, and noise control. In his teaching role, he mentors students and teaches courses in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, bridging cutting-edge research with classroom instruction.

Research Interests:

• Aeroacoustics
• Aircraft Noise Control
• CFD/CAA Applications
• UAV Design and Optimization
• Applied Aerodynamics

Kursat Kara is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University and Director of the Kara Aerodynamics Research Laboratory. His research combines high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics and scientific machine learning to understand complex aerodynamic flows and predict their effects on aerospace vehicles. His interests include hypersonic boundary-layer receptivity and transition, unsteady aerodynamics, spacecraft dynamic stability, and turbulent wake–aircraft interactions, with applications to atmospheric entry and advanced air mobility. He also investigates emerging applications of quantum computing to fluid dynamics. His research has been supported by NASA, NSF, Oklahoma NASA EPSCoR, NAVAIR, Ansys, and IBM.

Dr. Kara was elected an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), Class of 2027, in recognition of his computational research contributions to applied aerodynamics, flow physics, aerodynamic stability, and flow control. As technical symposium advisor for the AIAA Oklahoma Section, he also contributed to the section’s 2026 AIAA Section–Student Branch Partnership Award, Second Place in the Small Section category, recognizing collaboration between professional members and student branches. His additional honors include OSU’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology Excellent Faculty Award in 2025 and Khalifa University’s President’s Faculty Excellence Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2015.

His teaching and mentoring connect foundational engineering principles with emerging computational methods. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, boundary-layer theory and transition, and quantum computing, and mentors students conducting research in high-fidelity simulation and data-driven modeling.

Dr. Kara earned his Ph.D. from Old Dominion University, where he studied hypersonic boundary-layer receptivity to acoustic disturbances. He subsequently worked as a research engineer at New England Analytics LLC, supporting Sikorsky Aircraft, and completed a postdoctoral appointment at Penn State focused on hot-jet simulations for aeroacoustics. In 2010, he helped establish the Aerospace Engineering Department at Khalifa University before joining Oklahoma State University in 2019.

His professional service includes membership on the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee from 2012 to 2021 and technical chair or co-chair roles for Applied Aerodynamics conferences and tracks at AIAA AVIATION and SciTech. He is also a member of the American Physical Society, serves on the editorial board of Scientific Reports, and guest-edits the journal’s Quantum Computing collection.

AIAA Conference Leadership
Served as technical chair or co‑chair for multiple Applied Aerodynamics conferences:
• Conference Technical Co-Chair, 32nd AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, AVIATION 2014 (Atlanta, GA)
• Conference Technical Co-Chair, 34th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, AVIATION 2016 (Washington, D.C.)
• Conference Technical Chair, SciTech 2018 Applied Aerodynamics Track (Kissimmee, FL)
• Conference Technical Co-Chair, 38th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, AVIATION 2020 (virtual)

My group works at the intersection of materials science, solid mechanics, and surface science to understand interfacial phenomena in materials under extreme conditions. Our research focuses on friction, wear, deformation, and bonding at interfaces – from atomic to macroscopic length scales. Using in-situ methods, we uncover the physical and chemical processes that drive these interfacial phenomena. We apply this knowledge to design advanced materials, enable advanced manufacturing processes, and develop next-generation lubricants for emerging technologies.

Our current research projects study the science of microstructure formation in cold spray metal additive manufacturing, the effects of electric fields in tribology (the science of friction, wear, and lubrication), and the mechanochemistry of nanostructured materials.

Ryan Paul is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at Oklahoma State University. He primarily focuses on technical areas related to flight dynamics, to include development of underlying simulation models for manned/unmanned vehicles, studies involving human system interaction, and the influence of the external environment on system dynamics. He was an ONR Summer Faculty researcher during Summer of 2022. Prior to joining the University, he was an engineer at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division in the Flight Dynamics Branch.

Research Interests:

Aerodynamics, Aircraft Design, Flight Dynamics Analysis and Simulation, Pilot/Operator Workload

Dr. Chitrarth Prasad is the director of the Flow Physics Simulation Lab (www.flowphysicslaboratory.org) in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Oklahoma State University. Prior to this role, he worked as a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Ohio State University's High-Fidelity Multi-Physics Laboratory. Dr. Prasad holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering from Pennsylvania State University. His current research areas include aeroacoustics, hypersonics and unsteady aerodynamics.

Research Interests:

Aeroacoustics, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Hypersonics, Turbulence Modeling, Unsteady Aerodynamics, Vortex Dynamics, Multiphase Flow